William has been enjoying his horseback lessons so much. He’s talked about wanting a horse when he gets older, and we’ve talked about having to board the horse and the expense of having a horse. William also has a snake that his daddy caught for him. He even has the snake skin that proves to me that that little snake is getting bigger. We have Valentino, our crazy cat, who goes on wild sprints all through the house and lives to terrorize little Kitty.

Usually, when we get on the subject of “pets,” one of the children brings up our Westie, Cricket. When we drove to California from Arkansas, Cricket became very stressed. (Rowland and I were very stressed, too, with four kids and a dog in the car for four days!!) On the way out, her hair started falling out in clumps. Once we reached our new home, Cricket found an escape route from the back yard and would escape frequently. In the middle of unpacking boxes and chasing down four children and making sure no one was falling into the swimming pool in the backyard, I’d have to run down the street to catch Cricket. This added a little more stress to my already stressful life. Then, Cricket fell into the pool twice. She would chase a squirrel on the fence and not watch where she was going, and plop! She’d be in the pool. Carson rescued her, but we did have the concern that she would fall in when we didn’t see her and then she’d drown.

Speaking of the backyard, it was amazing. We had an orange tree, a lemon tree, a grapefruit tree, and countless rose bushes. It was truly a tropical paradise with the beautiful pool lined with rock. Rowland and I loved to sit in the backyard at night. It was a true haven. The only “problem” was that there wasn’t much grass in the yard. In fact, Rowland used an old-fashioned mower with just a roller with blades on the end. It didn’t take 3 minutes to mow all of the grass - except that the dog poop had to be picked up first.

In Little Rock, that was not an issue because we had an enormous backyard, and Cricket was a little dog so her poop was little, too. (TMI, right?) It was an issue in San Jose, though. Still, I was unaffected by that problem so it really wasn’t an issue for me! Cricket’s poop became an issue for em when she started pooping in the living room! So…here we are in a new home with beautiful, clean carpets, a gorgeous backyard with a wonderful pool, and a Houdini-non-swimming-pooping-wherever-she-wanted-to-dog. Oh, yes, and we still had four children, four million boxes, and no friends or family in sight.

Nana to the rescue! Mom and Dad came out after we had been in our house for about ten days. Anyone who knows my mom knows that her favorite activity is taking animals to the shelter. If she didn’t know Jesus, her own personal hell would be to have to live eternity with all of the animals she has dropped off!! In the middle of my daily (or hourly) meltdowns, Mom was there with great advice and structure for our lives. On little Kitty’s birthday (Why? Why? Why do my kids always have to remember the day?) after I had said at least 20 times that I wanted to get rid of Cricket, I lay down to take a nap. Mom and Rowland “took care of the situation.” In other words, Cricket found a new home at the shelter.

I have been reprimanded by my children numerous times for not letting the children say good-bye, for getting rid of her on Kitty’s birthday, for not asking the kids’ permission before I gave her away……. The sad part is that I miss Cricket, too. I wish that I had just given myself a little time to settle in and work with her. I had a kennel I could have put her in to keep her from running away in the midst of all of the craziness. I really loved Cricket. No one in this house misses her more than I do. I’m sorry! I even called the shelter to see if the people who had taken her wanted to let me have her back. I am truly, really, really sorry!

This morning, lying in bed with my two princesses, little Kitty brought up Cricket (AGAIN!!!!!), and the girls teared up as they explained to me all of the things that I had done wrong in getting rid of their dog, which was actually my dog. I once again apologized and told them that as soon as Daddy will let us, I will get another Cricket. I promised and kissed their tears away. In the midst of this agonizing moment, Jia reminded me that she would like to get a horse as well. She, too, has fallen in love with horses. She and Kitty have a couple of stuffed horses that they really like. I asked her where the horse’s house would be. In her most serious voice and looking me straight in the eye, she said that she would get a little horsey and keep it in a box on the dresser!!! Kitty, of course, died laughing. I, being the good mother that I am, bit my tongue and asked her what we would do when the horsey outgrew the box. Well, naturally, we would just open the sides of the box for him!

I guess the only question now is for my precious husband. Would you rather get us another Cricket or a horse that lives in a box on the dresser?